Sixers guard Matisse Thybulle opens up on why he isn’t fully vaccinated

PHILADELPHIA–Everything is settled for the Philadelphia 76ers as they head into the playoffs. After knocking off the Detroit Pistons on Sunday in the season finale, the Sixers are locked into the No. 4 seed and they will take on the Toronto Raptors in Round 1 of the NBA Playoffs.

The Sixers do face a lot of challenges when it comes to the Raptors, but one will be the fact that Matisse Thybulle will be ineligible to play in any road games in the series due to Canada’s rule that one needs to be fully vaccinated to enter the country. Thybulle’s absence will hurt the most on the defensive end as he is the team’s best perimeter defender, by far, and the Sixers will have to figure out how to handle the situation on the road.

After the win, Thybulle opened up in detail why he decided not to be fully vaccinated:

“I’m not fully vaccinated. Yeah, this is a decision I made a long time ago. I thought a lot about what I’m going to say here, essentially, I made this choice and I thought if I keep it to myself, I can keep it private, but people are always gonna wonder why. I was raised in a holistic household where anti-vax was not a term that was used. It’s a weird term that’s been thrown around to just label people, but we grew up with Chinese medicine and naturopathic doctors and with that upbringing, coming into this situation, I felt like I had a solid foundation of medical resources that could serve me beyond what this vaccine could do for me.

As things escalated and as this situation has played out, I’ve obviously had to reconsider and look at it differently. To that point, it got to the point last year during the playoffs where I did actually consider getting vaccinated and went through with getting the first shot, the first dose because, at that point, I was under the impression that getting vaccinated means that I could not get the disease and transmit it to other people. I felt like if I’m gonna be a part of society in the position I’m in, I need to do what’s right for the greater good. That argument of the greater good held a lot of weight for me.

As things progressed and this virus has changed in many different ways, it just showed to the science that that wasn’t the case anymore. That even while being vaccinated, you can still spread the disease so for me, in my reasoning, it felt like getting vaccinated was not something I need to do to protect other people and it was something that I would have to do to then protect myself and with that being considered and the holistic background of my upbringing and just the way I view medicine in general, I felt like I was secure in going to the doctors that I have to treat COVID if I did get it and in the case that I did, I was able to go about it in my holistic way and I’m able to sit here today healthy and be OK because of it.”

Did the Sixers ask him to get it?

“It was more suggested and offered to me. It was never forced or required just encouraged.”

Thybulle on telling his teammates about his decision

“That was really hard. Like I said, I made this decision a while ago where this situation I’m facing right now is not a factor. It wasn’t a part of any of the decision-making because, at the time, I would be available for my team, and I would be available to play and not restricted in any way to do my job. Having had the stance I’ve had for almost a year now, I just felt like it couldn’t be something that I would be forced to do because of rules or regulation changes and it felt like the right thing for me to just see it through and unfortunately, the repercussions are gonna be missing games and not being there for my teammates and I’ve talked to them.

Obviously, from fans to coaches to front office to teammates, there are people who are upset and don’t understand, but ultimately, I’ve been lucky to have them voice that they may disagree, but they support me in my decision-making. With that being said, I’m still gonna be there and give 110% every time I’m available to be on the court.”

Thybulle on not being able to play in Toronto

“It sucks. It was not the outcome that I wanted. It’s always hard not to be available whether you’re injured or whatnot, it’s hard to watch your guys fight out there without you. I believe in them without me just as much as I believe in them with me. I think that we’ve got as good a chance as any to make a run to the championship and I trust these guys to take care of it when I can’t be there on the floor with them.”

Thybulle thought about getting the 2nd shot

“There were points where I had to stop and reconsider, but at the time of having to make my decision, the odds that I was working with were not 100%. So, working with 50% percentages, it’s just hard to commit to doing something that I felt like was not right for me based off of a potential that could turn out that I wouldn’t have had to do it in the first place.”

Is Thybulle concerned about his future?

“I’ve accepted it. One of the things that my dad taught me growing up was you’re free to do whatever you want as long as you’re willing to accept the consequences of it. Like I said, I considered deeply, all of the different avenues and, of course, I’ve accepted that this could hurt money, contracts, reputation, but I felt like this is the right thing that I need to do for myself.”

What vaccine did Thybulle receive?

“Pfizer.”

His downsides on getting the 2nd dose

“My reasoning for getting it, not getting it, wasn’t really the downsides. I just didn’t feel like it would really benefit me. I didn’t see any benefits outweighing what I could seek from alternative medicine.”

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